"If you haven't got ..."

"When an elder dies ..."

"I don't know where ..."

"To my mind ..."

"An art teacher ran an experiment ..."

An art teacher ran an experiment in his ceramics class. He divided the class into two groups. One would receive their final grade based on the quantity of pots they were able to make: for example, 50 pounds was worth an A, 40 pounds a B, and so forth. The other half of the class would be graded on the quality of only one pot; it had to be exquisite.
And the experiment began...

The first group made pot after pot, some small, some large, more, more, more.

The second group strategized, studied the ceramics of the masters, sketched and plotted, calculated, planned, and finally each made his one pot.

So which group won?

Interestingly, the group that was judged on quantity also ended up with the highest quality pots. The second, strategizing, group found their pots beset with mistakes that they hadn't anticipated. As the first group made pot after pot, they also learned to better produce works of art.*

*a story from John Ortberg's If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat.

(From Amy Deardon's The Story Template blog with tips on story techniques, structure, and publishing.)

"Authors who never ..."

"A young musician ..."

"Don't explain why ..."

"The only thing ..."

"Story is to human beings ..."

"If you are ever ..."

"For me, writing ..."

"I set myself 600 words ..."

600 words wouldn't cut it for National Novel Writing Month where the minimum is 1667 words a day if you want t o make it to 50,000 by the end of November, but Arthur Hailey did manage to write some pretty big books on just a minimum of 600 words a day.

"You can't try ..."

"Young writers shouldn't ..."

"But words are things ..."

"Let's get one thing clear ..."

"The muscles of writing ..."

"The cat sat on the mat ..."

"Brave, strong people ..."